London –
He had a few minutes to call his brother in Gaza before his flight took off from Damascus, Syria. A cousin got on the line, too, and shared gossip from the Jabalya refugee camp, say family members. He told them to jot down the name of his hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He would be there for only a few days, in case the family needed anything. If he continued on to China after, or Iran, he said, he would let them know.

Emirates Flight EK912 was packed. He traveled on a coach ticket he had bought online the day before, and without his usual two bodyguards, who were unable to book seats on the same flight. During the nearly three-hour flight, he was served lunch (chicken breast or lamb brochette, sir?) and jotted some notes in a spiral notebook.

Using a fake name and passport of Mahmoud Abdul Raouf Mohammed – he had five such aliases – the man landed at Terminal 3 of Dubai’s international airport at 3:15 p.m., sailed through immigration, wheeled his black carry-on over to a waiting Toyota Land Cruiser at the taxi rank, and hopped in for a quick, five-minute drive.

At 3:48 p.m. on Jan. 19, he walked into the lobby of the Al Bustan Rotana hotel. Less than five hours later, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, cofounder of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the paramilitary wing of Hamas – would be dead.

As the liaison between Hamas and Iran for weapons-smuggling operations into Gaza, Mr. Mabhouh had a lot of enemies: He was wanted in Israel for the 1989 kidnapping and killing of two soldiers; he was loathed by members of Hamas’s rival Palestinian faction, Fatah; and Jordanian intelligence was looking for him. Egypt, where he spent all of 2003 in jail, also wanted him. The man had survived several assassination attempts.

Read the whole hot breaking news

NEW YORK – Getting people to pay for news online at this point would be “like trying to force butterflies back into their cocoons,” a new consumer survey suggests.

That was one of several bleak headlines in the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual assessment of the state of the news industry, released Sunday.

The project’s report contained an extensive look at habits of the estimated six in 10 Americans who say they get at least some news online during a typical day. On average, each person spends three minutes and four seconds per visit to a news site.

About 35 percent of online news consumers said they have a favorite site that they check each day. The others are essentially free agents, the project said. Even among those who have their favorites, only 19 percent said they would be willing to pay for news online — including those who already do.

There’s little brand loyalty: 82 percent of people with preferred news sites said they’d look elsewhere if their favorites start demanding payment.

“If we move to some pay system, that shift is going to have to surmount significant consumer resistance,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the project, part of the Pew Research Center.

Read the whole hot breaking news

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) –
At the end of “Pirate Radio” — the 2009 feature film about a ’60s illegal rock ‘n’ roll radio station in Europe’s North Sea — an array of albums is displayed: iconic symbols of musical independence that bucked the status quo. Among the albums on display is Public Enemy’s 1990 treatise, “Fear of a Black Planet.”

In a country still wrestling with the election of its first black president and ongoing racial tension, economic strife and war, “Fear” remains just as relevant 20 years after its release, alongside its three seminal singles: “Fight the Power” (immortalized in the Spike Lee film “Do the Right Thing”), “Welcome to the Terrordome” and “911 Is a Joke.” And still sounding that clarion call is Public Enemy and its dedicated frontman, Chuck D.

Embarking on what will be its 69th, 70th and 71st tours this year, the pioneering rap group is as busy as ever. Through its SLAMjamz digital label (SLAMjamz.com), Public Enemy recently released the benefit album “Kombit pou Haiti,” with proceeds donated to the Lambi Fund in Haiti. Coming in the spring: a “Welcome to the Terrordome” three-CD/three-DVD boxed set encompassing live tracks, videos and documentaries from the past 12 years of PE’s work; a Chuck D solo album, “Mistachuck: Don’t Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin’”; and “It’s Back to a Million of Us to Hold a Nation,” by PE backing band the baNNed. The forthcoming instrumental set reinterprets PE’s 1988 classic, “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.”

That’s not counting a radio show launched in November on WBAI.org — “AndYouDontStop!” — with plans to expand across the Pacifica Radio network and as a podcast on iTunes. Also in the works are three key ventures: SellaBand, a Web site where the general public can invest in artists (PE has raised more than $57,000 for its next album from investments in $25 increments); the Chuck D and Gary “G-Wiz” Rinaldo-created Web site HipHopGods.com, an archive site focusing on the history of classic rap; and FightThePower.org, a nonprofit company established by Chuck D to continue to fight for artists’ rights in terms of publishing, copyright and masters ownership.

In an interview with Billboard, Chuck D reflected on the creative climate that spawned “Fear,” PE’s early involvement in the Internet revolution and the evolution of rap and hip-hop.

Read the whole hot breaking news

DENVER – A 31-year-old mother from Colorado was one of seven Muslims arrested this week in Ireland in an alleged plot to assassinate Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, the woman’s parents said Friday.

Christine Mott of Leadville said she was told of the arrest of her daughter, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, in the case by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies.

She told The Associated Press that her daughter disappeared last September and later told her family she went to Ireland with her 6-year-old son and married an Algerian whom she met online.

Irish authorities only identified the seven as three Algerians, a Libyan, a Palestinian, a Croatian and an American woman married to one of the Algerians.

They were arrested Tuesday, hours before U.S. authorities unveiled a terror indictment against Colleen LaRose, 46, of Philadelphia, who bills herself as “Jihad Jane”.

Read the whole hot breaking news

LONDON – In a victory for the concept album, Britain’s High Court on Thursday ordered record company EMI Group Ltd. to stop selling downloads of Pink Floyd tracks individually rather than as part of the band’s original records.

The prog-rock group sued the music label, saying its contract prohibited selling the tracks “unbundled” from their original album setting.

Pink Floyd lawyer Robert Howe said the band was known for producing “seamless” pieces of music on albums like “Dark Side of the Moon,” “The Division Bell” and “The Wall,” and wanted to retain artistic control.

EMI claimed the clause in the band’s contract — negotiated a decade ago, before the advent of iTunes and other online retailers — applied only to physical albums, not Internet sales.

Judge Andrew Morritt backed the band, saying the contract protected “the artistic integrity of the albums.”

Read the whole hot breaking news